Wild Things
by DubonetTheWriter
Summary: Emery Duran always had a thirst for knowledge but something's you just don't want to know. So what happens when Emery finds out that not only is her best friend a werewolf, but there's an entire supernatural world out there?


**Chapter 1**

To say Emery Duran's Christmas had been boring would be an understatement. It was _abysmal._ No Christmas tree ranch fires, no drunken Santa incidents, and more importantly, nothing worth reporting on.

 _Pathetic,_ Emery thought in regards to the terrible winter break. _Not one good story, not one._

Emery looked down. Around her was an array of notebooks and cameras. She had been trying to sort the items in her backpack but had gotten lost in her thoughts. Emery started to put her colored stickers on each book, her system of knowing what subject it was for, when her doorbell rang.

Emery's eyebrow rose. She hadn't ordered take out and she wasn't expecting company. So with a groan, Emery got up from her bed and walked down the stairs to the front door.

"Emery!" The moment she opened the door, the voice of Stiles Stilinski sounded through the air. "You need to come with us, like, right now!"

Emery rolled her eyes; she could see his Jeep behind him, and had no doubt Scott was in the passenger seat. She was not going to be involved in whatever scheme they were cooking up.

"No."

"But Em!"

"I said no."

"But there's a –"

"I said no!"

"There's a dead body, Em!"

At that, Emery was intrigued. Not in a morbid way or anything, but Emery had been looking for a newsworthy story. What would be more deserving of attention than a dead body?

"A dead body?"

"Yes, Em, a dead body. Now if you don't come with us, we won't be able to see it."

"Okay. Let me get my camera, and then we can go."

Stiles nodded and watched as the Duran girl ran into her kitchen, picked up the nearest camera, and then bolted out the door.

"So…tell me more about this dead body."

* * *

As Stiles listed off what he knew about the dead body to Emery, she felt lost in translation. Scott looked back at Emery through the rearview mirror, his face giving Emery a look that meant _'yeah, he's rambling again.'_

"Stiles, slow down. I can't understand a word you're saying," Emery said, trying to get Stiles to utter a sentence that at least made sense.

"I said," Stiles spoke, punctuating his words slowly to annoy Emery, "that my dad and the entire Beacon Hills police department are out looking for a half of a dead body."

"Wait, a half?" Emery asked. This information had not been disclosed to her when Stiles asked her to come with them.

"Yeah, a half. Did I not tell you?" Stiles asked, genuinely unaware that he never mentioned this to Emery. This earned a scoff from the Duran girl and a chuckle from Scott; the two had different thoughts of Stiles' behavior. Emery thought it was stupid. And Scott…well, he felt the same. But he was certainly nicer about it.

"No you didn't. But that's fine. Either way, I'll get a good story out of this," Emery said as she adjusted her camera lens, not noticing the glares from Scott and Stiles.

"Wow, Em. Don't know whether to laugh or be disturbed," Stiles said from the front seat, earning a laugh from Scott who stopped the minute he saw Emery's glare.

However, before Emery could make a comment to Stiles, the Jeep came to a sudden halt. The three teenagers took a moment of silence. It was almost like they were all debating if they should do this.

"Well, let's get going losers," Emery started, getting out of the car and fussing with her hair, "We don't have all night."

* * *

"Are we really doing this?" Scott asked his friends, who had been in the woods for maybe three minutes. Emery rolled her eyes. She knew this would happen, that Scott wouldn't want to have an adventure.

"You're the one always bitching that nothing ever happens in this town," Stiles said, causing Emery to turn around and glare at him. No matter how much she agreed with Stiles, she wasn't going to let him be an asshole.

With a small huff, Scott spoke again. "I was trying to get a good night's sleep before practice tomorrow."

Emery clicked her tongue at that. No offense to Scott, but he wasn't exactly athletic. He'd more likely be sitting on the bench than playing on the field.

"Right, because sitting on the bench is such a grueling task," Stiles said, poking fun at the McCall boy.

"No, because I'm playing this year. In fact, I'm making first line," Scott said seriously, as if he actually had a chance.

"Hey that's the spirit. Everyone should have a dream, even a pathetically unrealistic one."

"You know, Stiles, maybe if you put half as much thought into school as you did rude comebacks, you'd have my GPA," Emery snapped. Stiles had broken the girl's last straw.

After a few minutes of a very tense air, Scott decided to try and ease the tension. "Just out of curiosity, which half of the body are we looking for?" And just like that, there was a new feeling in the air, quickly reminding the kids why they were here.

"Huh! Didn't even think about that," Stiles said, eyebrows scrunching together as he tried to remember if his father mentioned what half it was.

"And, uh, what if whoever the body is still out here?"

"Well I have an interesting fact about that," Emery said, interrupting the conversation with a smile, even though they were out in the middle of the woods with a killer on the loose. Scott and Stiles both turned and looked at each other, unsure if they wanted to know, but Emery started speaking without their permission.

"One-third of murders go unsolved in America. Meaning one out of three killers is never caught." Stiles coughed, covering up his fear. Scott's eyes just went wide. Neither boy knew what went through Emery's head, and frankly, they didn't want to.

As the three teens continued on in the woods, Scott's asthma caught up with him and he started to fall behind. Neither Stiles nor Emery seemed to care, more intent on finding the dead body than if Scott could keep up.

"Maybe the severe asthmatic should hold be the one holding the flashlight, huh?" Scott asked the two between breaths. But his plea went unheard by Stiles and Emery, who had noticed the sound and noises coming from down the hill.

"Come on!" Emery said to Stiles, grabbing his hand and pulling him forward, "I want to get a good shot!" And with that, his friends were off.

"Hold it right there!"

Emery froze. They'd been caught by an officer. This was not good. Emery looked to Stiles, her eyes struck with fear. Stiles turned towards the officer, prompting Emery to do the same. _Crap!_ Emery thought. _I'm going to go to jail!_

"Hang on, hang on. I know these little delinquents. In fact, one of them is my little delinquent." It was Stiles' dad, who also happened to be the sheriff.

Emery let out a sigh of relief, her prayers answered. As Stiles and the sheriff talked, Emery had a realization. Scott was still out there. Scott, the boy with asthma, the boy who wouldn't survive without Stiles and Emery, was _alone_ in the woods. Even after the Sheriff called for the boy, Emery couldn't focus, too worried to care. As the Sheriff walked them to their car, Emery glanced over her shoulder, looking for the boy. _Please be okay, Scott. Please be okay._

* * *

The next morning, Emery got up at 5 AM, still slightly on edge from last night. Her problems hadn't ended when the Sheriff found her and Stiles. When Emery had gotten home last night at 1 AM, her mother had been waiting for her.

 _Gretchen Duran was always trying her hardest to keep Emery safe. Of course, when your daughter won't listen to you and does stupid things anyways, she gets in the way of that plan. This felt like the millionth time Gretchen had had this same conversation with Emery._

 _"_ _Emery Jane Duran, are you insane? What the hell were you thinking?" Gretchen yelled, following her question with a sip of her wine. She was so tired of this nonsense._

 _"_ _But Mom," Emery tried to protest. But Gretchen just put up her index finger, her way of warning Emery to not test her patience. So Emery just stayed quiet and looked to the ground, not knowing what to do._

 _Gretchen just sighed and ran a hand through her hair. Noah was always better at this than her. "Emery, I don't want to hear it. Go to bed. We will talk about this later."_

Her mother had already left for school by the time Emery was ready for school, so Stiles was her ride. Emery was honestly thankful, as she didn't want to face her mom after last night. The doorbell rang at 7:33, which was later than Emery had expected. But it was Stiles, who was always a wild card.

"Hey Em. So did you hear from Scott?" was the first thing the Stilinski boy said when Emery opened the door. Both teens had been worried last night after they got caught without Scott.

"Yeah. He texted me last night. He said he was okay but something bit him."

"Bit him?" Stiles asked, eyebrows rising up and eyes going wide.

"Yeah. He didn't say what. All he said was something bit him," Emery said as she opened Stiles' car door.

"Yeah well, I'm going to drill him on this," Stiles said as he adjusted his rearview mirror and put the car into drive. Emery clicked her tongue at this and opened her math textbook before speaking again.

"You're a piece of work Stilinski."

"I know, Duran. I know."

* * *

Stiles and Emery were waiting for Scott in the courtyard at school. Both were nervous, but had very different ways of showing it. Emery bit her nails (her tell that she was upset or worried) and Stiles was a big ball of jitters. He had to have tapped his foot at least a hundred and forty times before Emery told him to stop it.

"Em! I'm worried, okay? I don't ask you to stop biting your nails."  
"Yes, but you're being annoying and… Scott!" Emery's attention quickly turned to the shaggy-haired boy who was approaching her and Stiles.

"Hey guys," Scott said as if everything was completely normal and fine. As if he hadn't texted his best friends that he'd been bitten by an animal.

"Let's see it." Stiles blurted out suddenly, an act that caused Emery to sigh. Couldn't Stiles let have Scott have a minute before going into spaz mode?

Scott gave the boy a confused look before turning to Emery and giving her this look that said ' _what is he talking about?'_

"The bite. Stiles wants to see the bite," Emery explained, drawing her words on that last sentence due to the pure cringe of it.

"Ohhhhh," Scott drawled, his eyes getting a little wide at the request before he gave his response, "Sure. Sure you can see it."

"Woo! Let's see this baby," Stiles said enthusiastically, a big grin spreading across his face. Emery cringed at just the thought of seeing the wound, so the girl turned her head to the side and covered her eyes.

"All done Em," Stiles called the moment Scott had pulled down his shirt again. The girl turned back around and rejoined her friends.

"So what do you think happened?" Emery asked as the three friends started walking towards the school. The girl had been curious of what had bitten Scott ever since his text this morning.

"It was too dark to see much, but I'm pretty sure a wolf bit me."

Emery and Stiles turned to each other, both with looks of confusion across their faces. Stiles turned back to Scott, his face still showing confusion from what Scott had said.

"A wolf bit you?"

"Uh-huh." Scott nodded absentmindedly as if there wasn't a huge logic flaw in his story. Emery shook her head as they walked along. If Scott wasn't confusing the crap out of her, she might have been able to enjoy the scenery of Beacon Hills High.

"No, not a chance," Stiles said again, shaking his head for effect. Emery nodded, trying to show her support for Stiles' cause.

Scott looked to the other two teens, his eyes showing how confused he was by all of this, before stating matter-of-factly, "I heard a wolf howling."

"No, you didn't."

"What do you mean, 'No I didn't?' How do you know what I heard?"

"Whoa, whoa. Boys," Emery interjected herself, sensing the small amount of tension and wanting to nip it in the bud. She put her hand on Scott's shoulder, trying to be blunt but kind about what he thought had happened to him.

"There are no wolves in California. The last confirmed wolf to be seen in California was in 1924." Scott's eyes widened in response to this fact presented by Emery. He knew the girl was basically a walking encyclopedia, after all.

"Really?"

"Really. There are no wolves in California," Stiles said, finishing the argument he had started.

"All right, well, if you don't believe me about the wolf, then you guys are definitely not going to believe me when I tell you I found the body."

Emery could feel her pulse start racing the moment the words left Scott's mouth. _This! This is the story I've been waiting for._

"Oh god," Stiles started, his voice incredibly loud. Emery almost felt she should take a few steps back, so as to not go deaf. "That is freaking awesome. I mean, this is seriously gonna be the best thing that's happened to this town since…" he trailed off before picking up again after a few sounds of clicking heels. "Since the birth of Lydia Martin. Hey, Lydia, you look – like you're going to ignore me. You're the cause of this, you know." Just like that Stiles had turned his attention away from Lydia Martin and back to Scott, who was standing there with an amused expression on his face.

"Uh-huh."

"Dragging me down to your nerd depths. I'm a nerd by association. Me and Em have been scarlet-nerded by you," Stiles ranted, causing both Emery and Scott to laugh. Stiles was too much sometimes.

By the time they had stopped laughing, the trio had reached the front doors of the school. Emery didn't know why but something felt different about this semester. Maybe Scott had been right? Maybe this would be their chance to shine. _Or it could be our chance to crash and burn. Time would soon tell. But whatever it was, I was ready for it._


End file.
